Obtainium Performance Ti Spring Weights and Pics

Just got my Ti Spring in from Obtainium Performance Products. Obtainium is a small part of a company called Hi Tech Springs that specializes in high grade springs for the aerospace industry. Obtainium is the part of the company that makes the MTB Ti Springs. They are working with some of the top MTB Industry Suspension companies to bring us (The MTB Word) some really nice high in grade springs. The springs have a nice gloss finish to them which makes it stand out over the other Ti springs out there. Makes you feel like you got more for your money&#8217;s worth. Their pricing is lower than most of the other Ti springs out their even if you have to buy a Performance Adapter to make it fit your shock right. Right now they have one size that works on both 2.75&#8221; and 3&#8221; stroke shocks, with other sizes in the works.

The easiest (and most expensive) is on an Instron machine. It is an expensive load cell with a position output. All you need to do is measure load verses displacement. We have a generic Instron here at work that we use for tensile and bend testing. But they offer a lot of different more specialised machinces. There are other companies that make them too.

Instron machine for springs:

There are also special gauges used in the suspension industry that moto suspension shops use that are a bit cheaper:

You could possibly rig a house scale up with a press or vise to do this. there would obviously be some gauge error.

The easiest would be to ask him for a reading on your specific spring. That would be a differentiator for his business if he included tag with the actual measurement.

for a ballpark rate (k) put a known weight (F) on the spring and measure the change in length (delta-x). k=F/delta-x. that is all the machines are doing that chriskring mentioned, but with greater ease and accuracy. you could use a dumbell, or anything else you have previously weighed. take several measurements and get an average value for k.

Those springs are damm sexy,that gloss finish is much better than those other Ti springs.I'm curious if they make in the near future springs for 10.5 x 3.5'' shocks that would be great for my bike and for other bikes off course.

You guys are right. That was what I attempting to communicate in the last couple of paragraphs. The problem is that the original question was if the springs were accurate to the number written on them. I would hope that the springs are not more than 10% off in rate.

With a 100 pound weight on a 300 lb/in spring, your only going to get a 0.33" deflection. If your off in the measurement by 0.05" inch and you measured 0.38" rather than 0.33", the calculated spring rate would be 263 lbs/in rather than 300 lb/in. I think it's going to be hard to measure better than 0.05" accurately with a weight on it. That's why I said it would be better to ask the spring manufacturer for a certification on the spring.

Just got my Ti Spring in from Obtainium Performance Products. Obtainium is a small part of a company called Hi Tech Springs that specializes in high grade springs for the aerospace industry. Obtainium is the part of the company that makes the MTB Ti Springs. They are working with some of the top MTB Industry Suspension companies to bring us (The MTB Word) some really nice high in grade springs. The springs have a nice gloss finish to them which makes it stand out over the other Ti springs out there. Makes you feel like you got more for your money&#8217;s worth. Their pricing is lower than most of the other Ti springs out their even if you have to buy a Performance Adapter to make it fit your shock right. Right now they have one size that works on both 2.75&#8221; and 3&#8221; stroke shocks, with other sizes in the works.

Those springs are damm sexy,that gloss finish is much better than those other Ti springs.I'm curious if they make in the near future springs for 10.5 x 3.5'' shocks that would be great for my bike and for other bikes off course.

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The 3.5" stroke Spring is in the works. They are working with RS on it, and yes that does mean RS will have a 10.5x3.5 shock soon.

FCLinder - Any on-scale pics? Your weight sounds in line with the other obtanium weight I've seen but it never hurts to see proof.

DIRTWRKS - Any on-scale pics of the manitou 3.0x300 weighing 210g? I don't believe that figure, as my manitou 2.75x350 weighed 256g, but maybe like davep said, yours is an older style manitou spring that is no longer available. Not really a fair comparison in that case I guess.

davep - Any chance you could ask the guy if he can give actual ratings on springs next time you talk to him? Personally I'm chasing a 250, but really want it to be on the heavy side (250-260), as under 250 will probably be too soft. I'm also curious if there's any chance he can make intermediate rates (in the lower rates), like 275 and 325 - be great if you could ask about that too. Thanks in advance!

FCLinder - Any on-scale pics? Your weight sounds in line with the other obtanium weight I've seen but it never hurts to see proof.

DIRTWRKS - Any on-scale pics of the manitou 3.0x300 weighing 210g? I don't believe that figure, as my manitou 2.75x350 weighed 256g, but maybe like davep said, yours is an older style manitou spring that is no longer available. Not really a fair comparison in that case I guess.

davep - Any chance you could ask the guy if he can give actual ratings on springs next time you talk to him? Personally I'm chasing a 250, but really want it to be on the heavy side (250-260), as under 250 will probably be too soft. I'm also curious if there's any chance he can make intermediate rates (in the lower rates), like 275 and 325 - be great if you could ask about that too. Thanks in advance!

davep - Any chance you could ask the guy if he can give actual ratings on springs next time you talk to him? Personally I'm chasing a 250, but really want it to be on the heavy side (250-260), as under 250 will probably be too soft. I'm also curious if there's any chance he can make intermediate rates (in the lower rates), like 275 and 325 - be great if you could ask about that too. Thanks in advance!

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I have stressed to Jim that weights are quite important, and since his springs seems to be on the lighter side, he SHOULD advertise it.
I have also mentioned the 'intermediate' rates at the lower end (he makes a 375). IMO, springs should increase by a fixed %, not a fixed rate...the lower rate applications get kind of screwed with the industry standard jumps (500 -> 550 = 10% increase.......250 -> 300 = 20% increase). I get the feeling that there is a question about how many of these lower rates he could sell. Since no one has made them before (and there have not been bikes that could utilize that rate intil the recient past) there is no past info about the sales #s of these springs.
It might be worth while to get an e-mail campaign going to let him know how many people want these springs...

As for spring by spring rates...that might be hard. Jim does not build these things start to finish under his own roof. There is also variation from material batch to material batch..so lets say a certain spring is designed with a certain ti material. Each and every batch of ti has to be wound, heat-treated, stress relieved, and then tested to verify the original design..if the spring is off..the a redesign is needed (either a change in wind, or heat or whatever) ...this is done for every batch of material. I constant design evolution as I understand it.

Obviously Jim has some margin of error that is acceptable and something that he considers outside of that range....and that would be a number that I think he could and should advertise. But individual spring rates would require another test step for each and every spring (by an outside vendor I think) that may heavily impact the price. He may do this already, but statistical sampling would be much more effecient, and still verify that the springs are within 'spec'.

I know you contacted RCS about a specific rate spring, (and they did not have it) but I guarantee these things exist. Whether they were a test run, or were over etched or whatever..some springs are going ot fall outside of the acceptable error margin...and that could be a good thing for some people. Being in the same area as the majority of ti spring mfg, I have seen several 'non conforming' springs that have a specific rate hand-written on them, '417 lb/in' for example, show up on peoples bikes.... as it was deemed un-sellable for some reason.

You might try to get a hold of Jim @ Obtainium as he may have something sitting around that would work..and he is still small enough to care about selling that one spring.

I just picked up my Obtanium today. Sitting side by side to my standard RCS the difference is quite large. 1/2" shorter and much smaller wire size. And the weight.....RCS was 430, the Obtanium 310.

Yes.....310 grams on the same legal postal scale! Add in the 2 spacers for the DHX at 20g a piece and we hit 350 grams. The RCS with the DHX spacer at 8 grams came to 438. 88 grams, heavier and almost $100 more expensive. I mean if the main purpose of buying a Ti spring is for weight savings, why not pay less and get more with Obtanium.

You can save a few millimeters of gap between the coil and the DHX reservoir by removing the blue bottom out adjustment cap. This buys you enough clearance, even with the largest of Obtanium springs (650 pound shown).